Grandville Cheer Raises Bar in Repeat Bid

December 23, 2015

Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
 

GRANDVILLE – Grandville has had one of the elite competitive cheer programs in the state since the sport became MHSAA-sponsored in 1994.

Six championships in Division 1/Class A and eight runner-up finishes over the past 21 years provide undeniable proof of the program’s success under longtime coach Julie Smith-Boyd. 

Grandville enters this season as the defending Division 1 champion after notching a narrow victory over another perennial power, Rochester, at last season’s MHSAA Final. It was the Bulldogs’ first title since 2011.

Smith-Boyd, in her 35th year at the helm, said a key to last year’s run was a commitment to conditioning and weight training. 

“Last year was the first year that we lifted throughout the season,” Smith-Boyd said. “We have lifted in the past, but once the season started we stopped. It was amazing to me how much stronger they were at the end, and now that we’ve been doing it for over a full year they are so strong.”

The hiring of strength and conditioning coach Tully Chapman has made a world of difference to not only the competitive cheer squad, but other sports at Grandville. 

“Everything is so much better and stronger, even with their tumbling,” Smith-Boyd said. “They are showing more athleticism, and it has benefited us so much. The lifting has made them more mentally tough, to get through some things that they didn’t think they could do. We are doing some hard things this year and really mixing it up.”

The added element to the program, combined with the return of several key performers, has the Bulldogs primed to duplicate last year’s accomplishment. 

Grandville has 13 back, including Ingrid Vredevoogd, Kelsey Russell, Mackenzie Brower, Carly Landstra, Rachel Anglim, Skyler Stauffer, McKenzie Wezeman, Daelyn Weir, Kaley Schuitema, Olivia Calvin, Jaycie Schultz, Claire Baker and Paige Gkekas.

“We’re not as experienced as last year’s team was, but they looked amazing in Rounds 1 and 2 at the first meet at Comstock Park,” Smith-Boyd said. “I looked at the scores and they were almost identical to the same time last year. We do have the target on our back, but I just want them to do their best.” 

The Bulldogs are vowing not to be satisfied with last year’s memorable feat.

“We’re just really powerful, and I feel like we have this drive to do it again,” Weir, a junior, said. “And since we’re state champs, we feel like we have to work even harder at it to be champs again.” 

Vredevoogd, one of eight seniors, echoed those sentiments. She said the team understands the challenges awaiting it in defending the title.

“We talked in practice how for teams that didn’t win last year it’s almost easier to reach for it because there is something to strive for,” she said. “It’s almost harder to stay at the top, so our focus is to work hard to stay there instead of taking steps back. We have girls back who know what the state finals felt like, and the girls from the JV have jumped right in. We’ve hit the ground running.” 

Within the program, expectations never change. Smith-Boyd doesn’t allow it.

“I don’t really lower the bar; I just don’t,” she said. “And the girls coming up know that. The bar keeps going up and up the more talented and the more skilled they become. They just rise to the occasion, and we keep getting girls to come out for it. They work so hard, and I really like this group.” 

The tradition of the program motivates each team member. They don’t want to disappoint previous teams and are focused to live up to the high standards.

“A lot of the alumni will come back, especially during state week, and they will talk to us about their experiences,” Vredevoogd said. “It just motivates us to carry on what they’ve built up, and especially Julie. There is a lot to be proud of and a lot to be excited to be a part of.” 

Said Weir: “I feel like we always have the pressure, only because we’ve always had so many teams in the past that have been really good so we all feel like we have to be like that.”

A close bond also has formed among this year’s group. 

“We all love each other and love to be around each other,” Weir said. “We’re a family, and being at practice is fun.”

While the opportunity to contend for another MHSAA title would be ideal, Smith-Boyd simply hopes for the best from her team. 

“That would be super cool, but if we don’t get it I want them to have a great year,” Smith-Boyd said. “For it to be exciting, memorable and fun.”

Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.

PHOTOS: (Top) Grandville competes during Round 3 of last season's MHSAA Division 1 Final at the Grand Rapids DeltaPlex. (Middle) Coach Julie Smith-Boyd prepares to guide her athletes during competition.

'Small but Mighty' Gobles Aims for Finals

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

December 17, 2019

GOBLES — With just seven girls on her team, “we’re small but we’re mighty,” Gobles competitive cheer coach Nicole Durr said discussing her Tigers’ prospects this winter.

Lack of numbers have not hurt them too much in the past, with the team qualifying for Regional competition the last five years in a row.

However, this is the smallest roster in Durr’s four years as Gobles head coach.

“We had 12 my first year with a big senior group,” she said. “Ten the next year and nine last year.”

No matter the numbers, the goal is still the same: Compete at the MHSAA Competitive Cheer Finals, this season March 6-7 at the Grand Rapids Delta Plex.

Gobles began competition at the Paw Paw CCCAM Scholarship Meet on Saturday, taking first in Division 4 and finishing fourth overall among 22 teams. The team began preparing the second week in November, and conference competition begins in January.

“Cheerleading is a very mental sport,” Durr said. “It’s a very long season, so it takes a mentally strong team.

“It takes good chemistry because it’s a lot different sport than other sports. There’s a lot of trust involved, especially in our stunting round.”

Winning formula

Trust is what Brielynn Lisowski has in her teammates.

Lisowski, one of three seniors on the team with Lauren Krieger and Annika Brunner, is the flyer.

“It is scary,” Lisowski said. “It’s a lot of work, but when I do my job, it’s not too hard. I do trust them, for sure.”

The other four girls are sophomores – Maecy Bills, Alexis Diamond, Ella Miller and Jocelynn Wassenaar – and three competed on the varsity team last year.

With such a small team, Durr said the girls automatically begin competition by losing 10 points.

“In Round 2, our mandate for our division is six (girls),” she said. “However, there also is a multiplier depending on the difficulty of the skills you’re doing.

“Our best bet is to put five girls on, take a 10-point penalty, but our score is going to be high enough that if we did six girls with lower skills, we wouldn’t score as high as we will with five.”

Two of those five are the other two seniors, both bases, who have worked together the last three years – a bonus, both say.

“It’s hard but I feel that’s what I’ve been doing since middle school …,” Brunner said. “Lauren and I, we have the dynamic down pretty good.

“We’re used to each other and we know how each other works.”

Krieger has been cheering since second grade and said it is important that the two bases have chemistry.

“Being with each other for so many years, especially not only in cheer but also being friends, we more or less understand how each other works,” she said. “So if a stunt isn’t going up, we know that we aren’t just going to drop it; we’re going to fight to keep it up there.

“Working with each other so long, we know each other’s quirks. If we see a certain facial expression, then we know what to expect.”

Success and wisdom

Durr brings a wealth of experience to the team. She began her coaching career 29 years ago and has served during the entirety of the MHSAA’s sponsorship of the sport, which began in 1994 and continues to provide one of the few “team” competition formats in cheer/spirit in the nation.

Durr began coaching after her first year of college and led the Otsego team for 16 years, before also coaching at Allegan and Plainwell and then landing at Gobles.

“It takes a lot of work (to cheer),” she said. “I think now, more people are starting to understand that cheerleading is a sport and it’s not just girls running around trying to be cute.

“They actually come in and they work really hard and they deal with injury and they deal with everything any other athlete deals with. It’s a lot of work, and these girls do a really good job.”

There are also pressures that come with the sport.

“I feel like there’s a lot of pressure mentally that there isn’t in other sports because we have to memorize rounds,” Brunner said.

“In other sports, you build up your points. In cheer, you start at 100 and go down from there. For me, my biggest fear is to mess up.”

The girls can tell if they are “messing up” by how animated their coach is during the routine.

“For me, I had a coach that was always very animated and I kinda fed off that,” Durr said.

“I think the girls know sometimes if it’s not going well and I’m just kind of standing back there, they’re like ‘Oh gosh, this can’t be good.’”

Athletes are well-versed in what’s expected on the way to joining the high school team. Durr’s program benefits from a good feeder system in the middle school. Coach Tiffany Burnell is an Otsego grad who cheered for Durr.

“She knows how I like things,” Durr said. “She’s been with me since she was a sixth grader.”

In addition, the high school’s volunteer assistant coach, Jessi Andrina, is a nurse practitioner at DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids and structures some of the conditioning.

“We did Alma College’s workout last year for conditioning,” Krieger said. “Jess has us do a lot of circuit workouts while we’re doing jump drills or tumbling, which really helps build our strength.”

The athletes do an hour of conditioning before working on their routines.

Most also have participated in sideline cheer during the football season. But as they get older, a lot have jobs and cannot commit to two seasons, Durr said.

“In a perfect world, I would have 25 girls on my sideline team and 25 girls on my competitive cheer team,” Durr said.

“I think we need a bigger school,” she added, laughing.

Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.

PHOTOS: (Top) Gobles’ seven-member competitive cheer team participated in its first meet this season Saturday at Paw Paw. (Middle) Clockwise from top left: Seniors Annika Brunner and Lauren Krieger, coach Nicole Durr and senior Brielyn Lisowski. (Below) Gobles is aiming to take the next tournament step and reach the MHSAA Finals. (Photos by Pam Shebest.)